Now it's time to put the theory into practice. The job is quite easy. A small program should undergo an ongoing optimization.
The program
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// ongoingOptimization.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
int x= 0;
int y= 0;
void writing(){
x= 2000;
y= 11;
}
void reading(){
std::cout << "y: " << y << " ";
std::cout << "x: " << x << std::endl;
}
int main(){
std::thread thread1(writing);
std::thread thread2(reading);
thread1.join();
thread2.join();
}
|
The program is quite simple. It consists of two threads thread1 and thread2.thread1 writes the values x and y. thread 2 reads the values x and y in the opposite direction. The execution of the program is not so thrilling either.

But you see, even this simple program has different results. So I finally come to my key idea.
In the process of the ongoing optimization of the program, I have two questions in my mind.
- Is the program well defined? Precisely, is there a data race?
- Which values for x and y are possible?
The first question is often very challenging to answer. So I will reason in the first step about the program and I will verify in the second step my reasoning with CppMem. If I have answered the first question, the second answer can easily be derived. I will provide the possible values in a table.

But still, one question isn't answered yet? What do I mean by ongoing optimization? I mean by ongoing optimization, that I try to improve the program by weakening the C++ memory model. So in my journey, I discuss the following stations.
- Non-atomic variables
- Locks
- Atomics with sequential consistency
- Atomics with acquire-release semantic
- Atomics with relaxed semantic
- Volatile variables
What's next?
Of course, this was a very short post. But this post should provide you only the context of my ongoing optimization. In case you are bored, reason about the small program and answer the two question.
- Is the program well defined?
- Which values for x and y are possible?
Still bored? Then reason about the weakening of the memory model in the program and about the consequences. In the next post, I will analyse the unsynchronized access with the help of CppMem. Stay tuned.
Thanks a lot to my Patreon Supporters: Matt Braun, Roman Postanciuc, Tobias Zindl, G Prvulovic, Reinhold Dröge, Abernitzke, Frank Grimm, Sakib, Broeserl, António Pina, Sergey Agafyin, Андрей Бурмистров, Jake, GS, Lawton Shoemake, Animus24, Jozo Leko, John Breland, Venkat Nandam, Jose Francisco, Douglas Tinkham, Kuchlong Kuchlong, Robert Blanch, Truels Wissneth, Kris Kafka, Mario Luoni, Friedrich Huber, lennonli, Pramod Tikare Muralidhara, Peter Ware, Daniel Hufschläger, Alessandro Pezzato, Bob Perry, Satish Vangipuram, Andi Ireland, Richard Ohnemus, Michael Dunsky, Leo Goodstadt, John Wiederhirn, Yacob Cohen-Arazi, Florian Tischler, Robin Furness, Michael Young, Holger Detering, Bernd Mühlhaus, Matthieu Bolt, Stephen Kelley, Kyle Dean, Tusar Palauri, Dmitry Farberov, Juan Dent, George Liao, Daniel Ceperley, Jon T Hess, Stephen Totten, Wolfgang Fütterer, Matthias Grün, Phillip Diekmann, Ben Atakora, Ann Shatoff, and Dominik Vošček.
Thanks, in particular, to Jon Hess, Lakshman, Christian Wittenhorst, Sherhy Pyton, Dendi Suhubdy, Sudhakar Belagurusamy, Richard Sargeant, Rusty Fleming, John Nebel, Mipko, Alicja Kaminska, and Slavko Radman.
My special thanks to Embarcadero 
My special thanks to PVS-Studio 
My special thanks to Tipi.build 
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- Design Pattern and Architectural Pattern with C++
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New
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